Review: Jenny’s 1st Adventure by Anna Staniszewski

Jenny is an average girl living an average life. But in the middle of an average day, a dwarf shows up to ask her to become a magical adventurer. Find out how Jenny completes her first job as an adventurer in this prequel to the My Very UnFairy Tale Life series.

I forget where I first heard of the My Very UnFairy Tale Life series (probably one of the innumerable blogs I follow). But when I saw this for free, I figured what the heck. At least it’ll give me an idea of whether or not I want to read the series.

Or so I thought.

I’m going to start with things Jenny’s First Adventure did right. First of all, like any good prequel this short (33 pages on my Nook), it read a lot like a beginning. It introduced the main characters and enough of the world that I’m pretty sure it’s going to a whole lot crazier than a standard fairy tale world. Plus, it was its own interesting, self-contained adventure that gives me an idea of what kinds of things Jenny will be doing in the actual series. And the whole story had its own fun, crazy brand of uniqueness that I loved.

But things it could have done better…. Believe it or not, there was nothing about book one at the end of Jenny’s First Adventure. Absolutely nothing. Not even a title. And I did not appreciate this, because Jenny was nine in this book. There’s nothing wrong with nine-year-old kids, but I’m seventeen. I don’t really feel like spending an entire novel in the head of an average nine-year-old. Now, it’s very possible that this is a prequel set far before book one – but I wouldn’t know, because there was nothing about book one in this book.

So, did this prequel make me want to read the series? Um…it didn’t not make me want to read it. My excitement level over the My Very UnFairy Tale Life series is exactly the same after reading the prequel as it was before. I’ll still probably read the series if it falls into my hands. I just won’t be going out of my way for it.